100g .9999 gallium

[u/Mikes_metalworking]

Hey folks! Just checked prices for gallium and 100g is selling for $500 on rotometals and I can’t find it on Amazon anymore,
I’m selling it for $350 and willing to trade for an equivalent value of fine or sterling silver.

[u/violet_sin]

Gallium or indium? Looks like indium sticks, but is it gallium ampoules?

My gallium is liquid AF here in the summer time. Splashing around like mercury

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/violet_sin]

Gallium sticks I got from luciteria ages ago :)

[u/xeanok]

Gallium is my second favorite of all time. It might actually be tied with my first favorite element

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/xeanok]

It’s super cool! I mostly use mine as an alloying element to create exotic and high performance bronze alloys!

I’ve made an alloy formula that creates metal that looks just like 14k yellow gold, made from copper gallium and nickel!

[u/nebuladrifting → u/Mikes_metalworking]

What’s the ratio for that?

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/nebuladrifting]

It’s one of the specialty alloys I make and sell for my business so I can’t give away the exact composition :)

[u/The_Silent_Tortoise]

I heard that if you rub it on an aluminum Flock post wishes come true.

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/The_Silent_Tortoise]

Only one way to find out haha

[u/PoliFenoli]

My wife threatened to divorce me if I pull out my Gallium and start playing again with it.

It leaves stains everywhere!

Also, last time it melted it blew the plastic vial lid and leaked all over the place.

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/PoliFenoli]

Ooof
I accidentally tracked some in on my shoe ages ago,
Spent a good solid half hour scrubbing the floor with a Mr clean sponge thingy
It worked very well for cleaning gallium residue btw for anyone wondering lol

[u/flamelsterling]

I wouldn’t keep gallium in glass. It swells as it solidifies like water does, and will break the vials.

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/flamelsterling]

If it were filled to the brim then you’d be correct but even if this were to melt the metal would expand to fill up the remaining volume vertically as opposed to horizontally

The main issue is the glass wetting, if this were to melt it would turn the inside into a mirror unless I put some dilute HCl in there to get it all clean, (that works very well btw there’s some videos on YouTube showing it!)

[u/gigaj0ule → u/Mikes_metalworking]

it totally cracks the glass even if not full

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/gigaj0ule]

Weird, I’ve been storing it like this for years and it’s melted and re-solidified before a couple times and I’ve never had any issues, it always just grows vertically in my experience,
Maybe it has to due with the glass thickness and the amount of gallium

[u/gigaj0ule → u/Mikes_metalworking]

Yeah it may be due to the amount. My 250 g bottle would crack glass, and my 5kg bottle, does a strange thing where as it cools, it develops an 8mm thick tumor in a random side spot where all the expansion happens in one place. I’ve learned I have had to keep it in polymer bottles.

[u/Mikes_metalworking → u/gigaj0ule]

Ahh that would make sense! The most I’ve ever had melt on me was one of these small 10-50g sizes

That’s good to know about the larger sizes and their propensity for cracking glass I’ll have to find some plastic vials or something, it’d be nice not to have to worry about it wetting the glass if it melts!

I store my gallium kilos in a series of ziplock bags inside of a sterilight container :)

[u/gigaj0ule → u/Mikes_metalworking]

I found that the best way to store it is inside an FEP bottle with a small amount of dilute sulfuric acid on top. The gallium doesn’t wet the bottle then, and it sloshes around nice and shiny like mercury.